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Post by siamesesin on Nov 19, 2009 11:38:27 GMT -5
I was rooting through my book bins this morning and almost without thinking I grabbed my copy of Little Women. It struck me that I have read the book dozens of times since I first picked it up as a kid, but I never seem to get bored with it when I decide to read it again.
What are some of your favorite repeat reads?
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Post by callipygias on Nov 19, 2009 11:53:47 GMT -5
I went out with a girl many years ago who seemed to read Little Women in a constant loop. I've never read it -- maybe she ruined it for me. Probably not, but let's blame her anyway.
Back in the day I read Koko, by Peter Straub, a bunch of times. Anymore I don't re-read my favorites as often as I'd like to (like many of you I have a huge back-log of books to read), but I've gone back to My Antonia more than anything else. And I don't think I'll ever get tired of Poe's short stories.
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Post by solgroupie on Nov 19, 2009 12:24:26 GMT -5
gone with the wind. my mom used to read it every summer when we would go on vacation - she would read it while sitting on the beach in the afternoons. i started reading it when i was around thirteen, i guess. i re-read it every couple of years or so and there is always something in it that i remember not understanding when i was a kid that i get now. though racist in a patronizing sort of way that always makes me feel a little uncomfortable, i always enjoy going back to it.
also, the great gatsby and lake wobegon days. i never tire of them.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Nov 19, 2009 12:33:57 GMT -5
I go through periods. I'll hit on a particular book for a few years and re-read it. The only thing that's stayed consistent throughout my life would be Tolkien's stuff. My dad read me the Hobbit before I could read myself, and those books were something we shared the entire time I was growing up. Then I just became geeky and absorbed the whole mythos, so re-reading them is more like retreading well-memorized scripture by this point instead of re-reading.
I have found myself picking up _David Copperfield_ and _Great Expectations_ every few years, now that I think about it. And I'd say Shakespeare and the Faerie Queene, but I don't think teaching stuff counts as "re-reading."
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Nov 21, 2009 11:55:54 GMT -5
I love Donald Westlake, and I've probably read most of his funny books seven or eight times each by now. I've re-read My Life and Hard Times by Thurber several times. I've re read Boyett's Architect of Sleep several times. In my youth, I re-read Tolkien every year. I've re-read my favorite Elizabeth Peters series, the Vicky Bliss novels, a few times. I've re-read a book called Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur more than once. I've re-read Slaughterhouse Five several times.
In almost every case, these are outright comedies or, in the case of Tolkien, still a feel-good reading experience. I guess I use old familiar beloved books the same way others use drugs and alcohol and ice cream. And, come to think of it, this is the same way I use MST eps.
And a belated thought: as I get older, my memory is going, and I really have no idea if I've read a book before if I read it since my memory started to go. This is rather pleasant. One should only need to own 20 books, eh? Each time, it'd be like the first time.
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Post by Chuck on Nov 22, 2009 20:06:23 GMT -5
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Both are worth re-reads.
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Post by Continuing Legend on Nov 23, 2009 19:05:16 GMT -5
I find it hard to re-read fiction all the way through, since I already know what happens, but I often enjoy re-reading my favorite parts of books.
Of course, I just woke up and can't think of any at the moment, but...
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Post by Emperor Cupcake on Nov 23, 2009 23:12:28 GMT -5
Oddly, the only two books I can think of at the moment that I have read over and over again are both non-fiction: Danse Macabre by Stephen King and Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer.
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Post by Nuveena on Dec 5, 2009 22:22:42 GMT -5
Beauty by Robin McKinley is an okay re-read. It's a bit mediocre, now that I'm older, but I still enjoy it, generally. Though, I'm really not a fan of her Beast; he's a little vague.
Watchmen I could read a hundred times and still pick up new stuff.
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